THE small residential suburb didn’t even really start to develop until the 1980s and it’s more a commuter town than a thriving hub in its own right. But Menai — in southern Sydney — has Australia’s biggest heart, taking out the gong for possibly the most romantic suburb in Australia.

At least when it comes to sales of Valentines’ Day roses, that is.

Supermarket giant Woolworths has revealed it sells more bunches of roses in that store than any other in Australia.

But it is subscriptions to dating apps that will be most in demand today with lovelorn singles heading online in huge numbers to banish the Valentine’s Day blues.

A street corner in Menai, the suburb where more roses are sold than anywhere else in Australia.Source:News Corp Australia

Woolworths said many of the Valentine’s flowers and gifts it sells will be snapped up this afternoon on the way home from work.

“We predict there will be an influx of last minute purchases. We’re gearing up to sell more than 90,000 single stem roses [on Valentine’s Day],” a spokesman for the retailer told News.com.au.

“Woolworths will also sell 900,000 chocolate boxes in the week before the 14th, with a third of sales, 300,000, taking place on the 13th and 14th February.”

Top of the rose rankings, Menai in the Sutherland Shire, has one of the highest rates of home ownership in Australia and is popular with families due to its relative proximity to Sydney’s CBD and the nearby beaches and national parks.

Queensland rose growers Geoff Choveaux and Eve-Lyn McGrath have been helping romances bloom on for years. Picture: Natasha Emeck.Source:Supplied

The people of New South Wales do seem the most love struck, with stores in nearby Caringbah as well as Neutral Bay on the city’s north shore, Maitland in the Hunter Valley and Mt Annan in the city’s south west also hot spots for rose sales.

Sydneysiders’ love of Valentine’s Day is also borne out by figures given to news.com.au by Commonwealth Bank that show — normalised by population — the highest volume of roses are sold in NSW than anywhere else in Australia in the week leading up to Valentine’s Day.

People in NSW buy the highest volume of roses — but they don’t spend the most on the flower. Source: Commonwealth Bank.Source:Supplied

Victorians and Western Australians were also preoccupied by love but people living in the Northern Territory, Tasmania and Queensland seemed far less fussed by the romantic celebration.

But Territorians do spend the most on their roses, forking out up to $87 on blooms compared to just $50 in Victoria. However, that could partly be due to the shipping costs of getting the roses up to Darwin.

While we might splash out on roses, it seems Australians aren’t opening their wallets to spend big on a romantic evening out tonight. The typical cost of a restaurant meal on Valentine’s Day is $110. But four times as many people will opt to order home delivery instead this evening, swapping out oysters for pizza spending at an average cost of just $27.

Maybe they spent too much on the flowers.

In the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, men will be far the biggest downloaders of dating apps.Source:Supplied

However, spare a thought for the lonely hearts. CommBank told news.com.au that dating app subscriptions, to the likes of Tinder and RSVP, remained steady throughout January but then spiked in the week leading up to Valentine’s Day.

And who is logging on so furiously? Overwhelmingly it’s men. In fact, 95 per cent of new dating app subscriptions taken out in the week before Valentines’ Day are done so by men with woman accounting for just five per cent.